Google, the global aggregator, just got a major boost from the Berlin Phil.

The orch will now be selling through the relaunched Google Cultural Institute.

Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin has also joined. And Carnegie Hall.

Here’s how it looks.

 

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Google is cleaning up, as usual. And no-one makes money from it, as usual.

Press release below. English version when available.

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Berlin, 1. Dezember 2015 – Z​usammen mit ​weltweit renommierten Opern­, Konzert­ und Schauspielhäusern präsentiert das Google Cultural Institute ab sofort einzigartige interaktive Erlebnisse aus Musik, Oper, Tanz und Schauspiel. Teil dieses neuen Projektes mit dem Namen „Performing Arts“ sind 60 Institutionen aus 20 Ländern. Partner wie die Berliner Philharmoniker, das Fundação Theatro Municipal de São Paulo in Brasilien, die Opéra National de Paris (Palais Garnier) in Frankreich, die Royal Shakespeare Company in Großbritannien und die Carnegie Hall in den USA präsentieren sich hierbei unter g.co/performingarts Millionen von Menschen durch 360­Grad­Videos, interaktive Geschichten, Bildergalerien, Backstage­Eindrücke und Street­View­Touren.

Wer die Berliner Philharmonie​erkunden möchte, den laden Indoor­Street­View­Aufnahmen zu einem Rundgang durch die eindrucksvollen Konzertsäle sowie über die Bühnen des Konzerthauses ein. Für die Öffentlichkeit bisher verschlossene Räume wie beispielsweise das Tonstudio werden durch hochauflösende Panorama­Aufnahmen erstmalig einem breiten Publikum zugänglich gemacht. Zu den Highlights der Partnerschaft zwischen den Berliner Philharmonikern und dem Google Cultural Institute zählen außerdem aufwendige 360­Grad­Videos. Dank dieser können Nutzer einen Auszug aus Ludwig van Beethovens 9.

Sinfonie, dirigiert von Sir Simon Rattle, sowohl aus verschiedenen Positionen als auch immersiv aus der Perspektive des Orchesters erleben. Zusätzlich haben die Nutzer die Möglichkeit, bei einer Probe dabei zu sein, um so einen sonst verborgenen Teil der täglichen Arbeit der Philharmoniker mitzuerleben. Für diejenigen, die mehr über die Geschichte und ausgewählte Projekte der Berliner Philharmoniker erfahren möchten, hat die Philharmonie vertiefende digitale Ausstellungen kuratiert. Alle Inhalte sind unter goo.gl/uKfVyu​ab sofort abrufbar.

Auch die Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin i​st Teil der „Performing Arts“ und zählt mit ihrer über 270­jährigen Geschichte zu den traditionsreichsten Bühnen des Projektes. Von barocken Aufführungen bis hin zu zeitgenössischen Inszenierungen ‒unter goo.gl/1HTLf5​stehen Online­Besuchern einzigartige Aufnahmen der aufwendigen Produktionen sowie Indoor­Street­View­Aufnahmen des derzeit im Umbau befindlichen Opernhauses zur Verfügung.

 

Berlin, 1 December 2015 – Together with world-renowned opera houses, concert halls and theatres, the Google Cultural Institute will now present unique interactive experiences from the worlds of music, opera, dance and drama. 60 institutions from 20 countries form part of this new project entitled “Performing Arts”.

At g.co/performingarts, partners such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Fundação Theatro Municipal de São Paulo in Brazil, the Opéra National de Paris (Palais Garnier) in France, the Royal Shakespeare Company in Great Britain and Carnegie Hall in the USA can now present themselves to millions of people through 360 degree videos, interactive stories, photo galleries, backstage impressions and street view tours.

Indoor street view images invite anyone who would like to explore the Berlin Philharmonie on a tour through the impressive auditorium and the podium of the concert hall. For the public, areas which have been closed to the them so far – such as the sound studio – are now accessible to a wide audience for the first time through high-resolution panoramic shots. Highlights of the partnership between the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Google Cultural Institute also include elaborate 360-degree videos. Thanks to this, users can experience an excerpt from Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle from different positions, including from the perspective of the orchestra. In addition, users have the opportunity to ‘sit in’ at a rehearsal and be able to experience what is an otherwise hidden part of the daily work of the Philharmoniker. For those who want to learn more about the history and selected projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker, detailed digital exhibitions are curated by the Philharmonie. All content can now be viewed at goo.gl/uKfVyu.

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin is part of the “Performing Arts” and, with its over 270 year history, is one of the most venerable theatres involved in the project. From Baroque performances to contemporary productions – at goo.gl/1HTLf5 visitors can view online unique shots of spectacular productions and indoor street view images of the opera house which is currently being renovated.

Olaf Maninger, principal cellist and media board member of the Berliner Philharmoniker: “The  Berliner Philharmoniker has long used digital media – from our Digital Concert Hall to social networks. We use these to communicate with fans of the orchestra all over the world as well as with very young people who wish to discover classical music for themselves. We are delighted to be a part of the Google Cultural Institute and that thanks to the enormous reach of Google, even more music lovers can get to know our work.”

Amit Sood, director of the Google Cultural Institute: “We are delighted to be working with so many world- renowned opera houses, concert halls and theatres to be able to show the best of drama, dance, music and opera. We have  brought all this together in one virtual location for the first time. Our goal is to make the performing arts accessible to everyone, to arouse curiosity and to allow access to details that fans have never seen before.”

 

In the historic Jewish community of Marburg, Germany, a rabbi invited the leader of the town’s Moslems to inscribe the last letters that complete a Torah scroll.

We live in unusual times.

Watch here.

Muslim-hilft-bei-Fertigstellung-der-Thora_ArtikelQuer

Verena Lafferentz-Wagner, youngest of the four children of Siegfried and Winifred Wagner, will turn 95 tomorrow.

Growing up in Bayreuth, in 1943 she married a high-ranking Nazi, SS-Obersturmbannführer Bodo Lafferentz, and had five children.

To her credit, she kept well out of Wagner family politics.

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We hear from sources close to the contract that the Curtis Institute is shaking out its woodwinds.

Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, is coming in.

Ricardo Morales and Michael Rusinek are shipping out.

 

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Nothing has been announced yet , but the changes are taking place in the term break. Two of those involved have confirmed the matter independently to a Slipped Disc correspondent.

In a small school like Curtis, this is quite a storm.

The Romanian pianist, who turned 70 yesterday, has observed media silence for more than 20 years.

Kirill Gerstein, in a review for New York Review of Books, argues the decision has added an extra dimension to his performances:

For the past two decades, the Romanian pianist Radu Lupu has chosen not to record any music. He does not allow radio broadcasts of his playing, he does not give press interviews, and he has almost no social media presence. This had made his performances all the more prized. Lupu, who turns seventy on November 30, is far more than a great pianist; listening to him, my attention slips away from the beauty and mastery of his piano playing, deeply impressive though it is, with a rich palette of sound and resonance, control over chordal voicing fueled by an exceptionally refined harmonic sense, and a muscular apparatus that accurately plots into reality his imagination of the shape and timing of musical events. Soon, I find I am taken deep below and far above the surface.

 

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Read Kirill’s full review here.

 

First Matthew Van Besien left the Melbourne Symphony to the New York Philharmonic. Got made an offer too good to refuse.

Then André Gremillet went to the Cleveland Orchestra. Ditto.

Now Richard Evans (pictured) has quit to join the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Not quite the same league.

Sounds like Melbourne might have a non-stick problem.

 

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The Radiohead singer and songwriter has issued a blistering attack on Google-owned Youtube for conquering and occupying the territory, ‘like the Nazis did in the Second World War’.

Here’s what he tells La Reppublica:

‘People still say that this is an era where music is free, cinema is free. It’s not true. The service creators make money — Google, YouTube. A huge amount of money by trawling, as in the sea — they take everything there is….

‘”Oh, sorry, was that yours? Now it’s ours. No, no, we’re joking — it’s still yours”. They’ve seized control of it — it’s like what the Nazis did during the Second World War. Actually, it’s like what everyone was doing during the war, even the English — stealing the art of other countries. What difference is there?’

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A misplaced simile, perhaps, but few would disagree with the underlying sentiment.

No sooner was Xian Zhang announced as music director of the New Jersey Symphony than she’s being paraded as principal guest conductor with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Xian, 42, is already chief conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, where she lives.

Sounds like she’s got an agent who just can’t say No.

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The BBC are saying she is ‘the first woman to be appointed to lead one of the BBC’s orchestras’ and the Guardian has absurdly headlined this as ‘making conducting history’.

At this rate she’ll be the first Chinese woman conductor to burn out in the West.

The Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja is a last-minute cancellation for this week’s three concert performances of Donizetti’s La Favorite at Deutsch Oper Berlin.

He’s replaced by the Belgian Marc Laho, singing opposite the stellar Elina Garanca.

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Vesa Siren has been collecting video statements from the six finalists.

Some are dangerously candid.

Watch here.

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Things are not adding up on the Rhine.

The Cologne Opera is undergoing a refit. It was supposed to cost €288 million, reopening in 2015. Now the budget is €400-460 million and the new date is 2018.

All being well.

cologne opera

It has been confirmed this morning that Professor Wang Cizhao, rector of China’s top music conservatory for 21 years, has been fired after a Party investigation into his daughter’s wedding last June.

It was found that he used Conservatory facilities for the lavish event ‘in violation of party discipline’.

Professor Wang, 66, was confronted two months ago by an open letter signed by 18 retired Conservatory professors, accusing him of privatising the Conservatory for personal gain.

His dismissal, which takes immediate effect, is part of a Party crackdown on alleged corruption in higher education music institutions. The Conservatory’s party secretary Mrs Guo Shulan has been put in temporary charge.

Today’s dismissal has sent shock waves through the upper echelons of music organisation in China, and beyond. Professor Wang is an international figure whose connections reach right across the global educational spectrum.

His daughter, whose wedding has been criticised, is a graduate of Yale Music School.

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Wang with Yale’s Dean Blocker

The Beijing Conservatory, as part of its 75th anniversary year, awarded Lang Lang its first honorary doctorate. If Professor Wang is thought to have broken the rules, many others have cause for concern.

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Wang with Lang Lang

h/t: Rudolph Tang